**2.2 Food security and nutrition**

*Urban Horticulture - Necessity of the Future*

lowing *advantages* associated with it [5].

**2.1 Fighting environmental challenges**

water-efficient food production.

plate in industrially developed countries [8].

"productive parks."

wood for fuel.

organic wastes that reduces the urban energy footprint [2].

demand nowadays.

more resilient cities.

by [2, 6]:

urbanization has important economic, social, and political implications: A large number of people residing in the cities can approach toward education and employment easily; they can trust the healthcare industry and can see cultural evolution. But this rapid growth of population is often integrated with communal challenges and also climate change: cities may fail to provide the basic facilities resulting in communal riots leading to inferior and undesirable living conditions. Therefore, in order to deal with the challenges of rapid urbanization, urban agriculture is in

The need or importance of urban agriculture is broadly discussed with the fol-

Today, cities consume more than two-thirds of the world's energy and are responsible for 70% of global CO2 emissions. Recently, UA is considered to deal with the difficult situations like climate change as it plays sufficiently in greening the metros and improving the warmer city climate while encouraging the reuse of

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) suggested that more urban farming should take place as a response to climate change and as a way to build

UA helps cities to improve the urban environment and become more resilient

• UA reduces the weakness of specific urban groups and diversifies urban food sources and income opportunities of the urban poor and forms a source of innovation and learning about new strategies/technologies for land- and

• UA helps in keeping the open areas covered with greeneries that might reduce the severity of the climatic conditions. UA also makes the microclimate worth living and also forbids the construction of buildings on risky areas, and by this not only flooding, landslides, and other disasters are reduced but also urban biodiversity and living conditions are improved. Such open green spaces also help to control storm water flows by allowing water storage and increased infiltration of excess storm water [7]. In these open green spaces in and around urban areas, food production can be combined with other services to city dwellers, such as agro-tourism or park and landscape maintenance, e.g.,

• UA produces fresh green foods that reduces the green-house gas emission and also uses limited energy in the process of getting food from the farm to the

• Productive reuse of waste water in UA helps to combat the freshwater crisis and also saves rivers, canals, and other water bodies from being polluted by the waste water. On the other hand, waste water as a source of irrigation might decrease the risk of water scarcity [9]. Use of urban waste water as a source of irrigation will help to adapt to risks of drought and flood. Urban waste water can be recycled for irrigation/fertilization of horticultural crops, i.e., floriculture and fruit crops, as well as for irrigation of forest plantations that provide

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UA contributes to enhance urban food security and nourishment of the poor class. Families that are involved in UA are exposed to better quality and variety of diet. They consume more herbs and greens than the others. Production of food by urban families can supply up to 20–60% of their total food consumption especially in green vegetables, medicinal and aromatic plants, eggs, and milk and meat from small animals. Involvement in UA may also cause better mitigation of diseases as it has better nutritional and medicinal properties in homegrown medicinal plants, it causes more physical exercise, and people do not have to depend on gifts and food aid which may enhance their self-esteem. UA also increases the accessibility of fresh and affordable food for other urban consumers, as most of the food produced by urban farmers is bartered or sold locally. UA also ensures food requirement during natural calamities and wars. In Sierra Leone, the residents devoted themselves in UA in order to meet their daily foods during the civil war that lasted for about 10 years. UA acts as a survival strategy for the refugees and helps them to live in a state of being worthy for honor [1, 2, 6].
